Another minute, and the other sails filled also. We were safe,
all hands breathing freely once more.
Now the wind hung far round to the eastward--far enough to
frustrate any design we might have had of going up the Straits
again. The old man, however, was too deeply impressed with the
paramount necessity of shelter to lightly give up the idea of
getting in somewhere; so he pointed her for Preservation Inlet,
which was only some thirty miles under her lee. We crowded all
sail upon her in the endeavour to get in before nightfall, this
unusual proceeding bringing our two friends up from to leeward
with a run to see what we were after. Burdened as we were, they
sailed nearly two knots to our one, and consequently intercepted
us some while before we neared our port. Great was their
surprise to find we had a whale, and very anxious their queries
as to where the rest of the school had gone. Reassured that they
had lost nothing by not being nearer, it being a "lone" whale,
off they went again.
With all our efforts, evening was fast closing in when we entered
the majestic portals of Preservation Inlet, and gazed with
deepest interest upon its heavily wooded shores.
*
CHAPTER XXVI
PADDY'S LATEST EXPLOIT
New Zealand is pre-eminently a country of grand harbours; but I
think those that are least used easily bear the palm for grandeur
of scenery and facility of access.
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